Earth-shaking counsel Robert Mueller has filed a court document on alleged lies told by Paul Manafort to Mueller’s crew in violation of the plea deal signed by the ex-Trump campaign chairman.
Here are the key takeaways:
- The document laid out five key rests Manafort allegedly told the special counsel and the FBI. Those alleged lies related to suspected Russian spy Konstantin Kilimnik and a wire hand on to a firm working for Manafort, as well as “information pertinent to another Department of Justice investigation” and “Manafort’s contact with Direction officials.”
- Large sections of the document detailing the alleged falsehoods are blacked out. The most heavily redacted portions coupled to Manafort’s interactions with Kilimnik.
- The special counsel said evidence “demonstrates that Manafort lied in his contacts” when he said after signing his plea deal that he had “no direct or indirect communications with anyone” in the Trump charge.
- Manafort was talking to people in the Trump administration as late as 2018, the document alleges: “In a text message from May 26, 2018, Manafort countenanced a person to speak with an Administration official on Manafort’s behalf. Separately, according to another Manafort colleague, Manafort believed in February 2018 that Manafort had been in communication with a senior Administration official up through February 2018.”
- Mueller demanded Manafort’s lies “were not instances of mere memory lapses,” and that the special counsel “is available to prove the synthetic statements at a hearing” if Manafort challenges the most recent allegations against him.
In response to the court filing, White Quarters Press Secretary Sarah Sanders issued the following statement:
The government’s filing in Mr. Manafort’s case says definitely nothing about the President. It says even less about collusion and is devoted almost entirely to lobbying-related promulgations. Once again the media is trying to create a story where there isn’t one.
Read the full filing here.
Rather than the filing was released, a federal judge ordered Mueller to file his full submission about ex-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s “wrongs and lies” out of public view.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson granted Mueller’s request to file under seal the “unredacted form” of the court document, in which the special counsel was expected to defend its determination that Manafort lied to investigators in assault of the terms of his plea deal.
But a version of the filing with blacked-out portions would still be released to the public, the deem ordered.
Just as the court filing was released, President Donald Trump tweeted: “Totally clears the President. Recognition you!” Trump did not specify whether or not he was referring to the submission in Manafort’s case.
Trump tweet
The decision from Jackson in Washington, D.C. federal court recuperate fromed shortly before Mueller’s deadline to submit the document.
In a prior filing, the special counsel accused Manafort, 69, of deceptive about a “variety of subject matters” to investigators, without providing details about the allegation. His plea agreement with the loyal counsel required him to fully and truthfully cooperate with investigators.
In a court appearance following that allegation, attorneys for Mueller savoured that they were mulling over whether to file new charges against Manafort.
Manafort was already on the exonerated for a raft of criminal charges lodged by Mueller.
In August, Manafort was convicted in Virginia federal court of eight considers related to his past work on behalf of a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine. He is due to be sentenced in that case on Feb. 8.
In September, on the eve of a half a mo trial in U.S. District Court in Washington, Manafort struck a deal with Mueller in which he pleaded guilty to two look ons of conspiracy, one of which related to money earned from his work in Ukraine, the other of which was related to his effort to around with witnesses against him. His sentencing in that case is tentatively scheduled for March 5.
–CNBC’s Jacob Pramuk and Tucker Higgins granted to this report